One December morning in 1702, a group of ronin led by Oishi Kuranosuke
attacked the household of court official Kira Yoshinaka. After killing
the man they held responsible for their late master's death (and
disgrace), they carried Kira's severed head several miles to Sengakuji,
where their late lord -- Asano Naganori, the daimyo of the Ako domain -- had been laid to rest after his court-ordered suicide. Upon making this presentation at Asano's grave, the samurai then sat and waited to be arrested for the authorities.

Since they had gone against the law in killing a court official, these 46 "masterless samurai" were themselves sentenced to death by seppuku; with the 47th ronin
involved in this revenge plot escaping this sentencing, it is said, on
account of his age (as well as because he had been selected to go to Ako
to tell the tale of his comrades rather than go along with them to
effect the act they all had sworn to do).Considering that among those sentenced to commit ritual suicide was Oishi's 16-year-old son,
that one surviving member of the party must have been pretty young
indeed -- or if he was adjudged to be too old to be sentenced to death,
then he must have been over 77 years of age as that was how one of the
other 46 ronin had been!

After their deaths, the 46 loyal ronin who committed seppuku were
laid to rest in the same cemetery as their late master (whose wife also
was buried near him after her death). And over the years and
centuries, many people have gone to their final resting places over at
Sengakuji to pay their respects to these honorable men as their deeds
have come to be looked upon as exemplifying admirable loyalty, justice
and chivalry.

When
I visited Sengakuji, I found the temple grounds to be peaceful and
serene. While there were other visitors about, the mood was solemn and
respectful. And although there's a museum attached to the temple, it
feels far less commercializing than educative and effective in
humanizing the 47 men (and boys) who had sought to avenge their lord --
by doing such as exhibiting personal effects that had belonged to them
and figurines bearing their likenesses, and also providing the names,
ages, regular positions (including accountant, lord chamberlain and
quartermaster, not just more expected ones like guard) and other details
about each and everyone of them.

Close
to the entrance to the graveyard is a place where one can buy sticks of
incense to place before the graves. It's a respectful gesture, and
many visitors do go ahead and perform this ritual. It can be attributed
to the smoke from the burning incense but I don't think it's just that
which makes your eyes water when you go about paying your respects to
the fallen samurai, their master, and his wife.For
even if you don't think what they did all those years ago was
absolutely the right thing, as you pause and place incense sticks at
each and every one of those46 ronins' graves, it will be
hard to not realize that each and everyone of these marks the final
resting place of people willing to die for what they believed in -- and
who once used to be living, breathing human beings like you and me.